Why email is Quickly Deleted

Are your e-mails ignored?

Pay close attention to the following to prevent your email from being quickly deleted.

1) Your subject line should say why you are sending the email.

“Overachieving Operating Executive — Firstname Lastname” is much more effective than “Responding to job post”.

This may sound obvious, but please, do not send e-mails to the HR department in, say, Amazon with the subject line, or document name, “Application for Amazon job”.

They know you’re applying to Amazon, and this makes it easy for your email to get lost or ignored.

Putting your name in your subject line will help the hiring manager, who’s already strapped for time, stay organized.

And providing a theme — with just a tiny bit of self-promotion — will remind them why it’s important to read your email.

2) Cut to the chase. Quickly.

“I’m writing to apply for the Senior Manager, Logistics position as my 20 years in logistics with Wal-Mart and Target make me a great fit for your company”… is the right way to start off your e-mail. Put all the details in later paragraphs.

This is super-helpful in this Age of Mobile — your recipient will probably see the email on her or his iPhone, Blackberry or laptop first, so you need to make it easy for them to read and understand your message while they’re on the go.

3) Number or alpha-bullet points.

When you have 8 different points and you list them all in a row without numbers or letters in front of them, it is very difficult for your reader to respond in an organized way.

Use a) b) c) or 1) 2) 3) to break up the email, clarify your main points, and make responding to you easy.

4) Be concise.*

5) Use bold, sparingly, to accentuate words that you’d like to emphasize.